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Exploratour - The Surface of the Earth

The Earth's crust showing the continents
Click on image for full sizeMaps courtesy of ITA's Quick Maps used with permission.

The Earth's Continents

We all know that there are seven land masses on Earth called continents, they are shown in the map to the left. (One continent is missing, can you find it?) But did you know that these continents were part of the Earth's crust?

The outside of the Earth is called the crust. The crust is hard and brittle, while the inside of the Earth is softer and more pliable, like wet clay. The continents rest on the Earth's crust, indeed they are part of the crust of the Earth.

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